00:00:00
Speaker 1: And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon on The John Phillips Show, broadcasting live from Cairo in Seattle, Washington. Mister Randy Wiggs in Culver City, John.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: We have an update on the Sandy fire that is burning in Siam Valley. Is now up to about five hundred acres. There are mandatory evacuations. You can check that out at emergency dot Ventura County dot gov. We have seen some structures threatened. It's not looking great out there.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: No, it is not so if you're in Ventura County, stay safe because these fires can move at a very rapid pace. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one. Eight hundred two two two five two two two. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. She is a professor of political science emeritus at California State University at Fullerton. Professor Barbara Stone.
00:00:52
Speaker 3: Welcome, Hi, John, welcome back.
00:00:55
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so Earlier today I talked about a lot of the emails that I've been getting from people who are upset with me for saying that Republicans should play for both spots on the November ballot. That is the only path forward I see for a Republican governor in California, and given the turnout numbers that we have so far, and of course those can change. Democrats could strategically be holding on to their ballots until the very last minute, and those numbers could change wildly.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: We don't know.
00:01:29
Speaker 1: That's the future. If we could see the future, I don't think we'd be working right now. But the way I see it is that is the best if not only play at winning and trying to get behind one candidate to make it a Republican versus a Democratic race in November is a sure way to lose your thoughts.
00:01:52
Speaker 4: My first thought is I hope that your listeners understand that you are by far the most intelligent voice on this sub checked out there, and no one else seems to quite get it. And that doesn't mean they have to do what you're telling them, but they need to listen because it's the best information they're going to get. As far as what Republican voters should do.
00:02:19
Speaker 3: They actually.
00:02:22
Speaker 4: John Sometimes I think I'm about to say something truly profound that's just out of step with the way normal people think. In this particular case, what I'm going to say is your listeners have a choice. If they haven't voted yet, they can do what you repeated or Ingram is having urged, which is get together vote for Steve Hilton, and then we won't be embarrassed by not having a Republican in the runoff.
00:02:53
Speaker 3: John.
00:02:55
Speaker 4: That's fine if that's how you think. Unfortunately, at this moment, the California Republican Party is an embarrassment. And I can tell you how it got there over many years. But the bottom line is we're not going to win. I don't care who we run for governor. That person will get plus or minus forty percent, the Democrat will get the sixty percent, and that will be the end of it. But just look at what happened two years ago with the US Senate when Adam Schiff beat Steve Garvey. Steve Garvey absolutely stopped campaigning, but it didn't really matter. He got about what Republicans get. So if that to you is making us look good so we can cover up how bad we are, how weak we are in this state, then fine, you should vote that way. If, on the other hand, you want even some little chance of winning, it's small, but the chance of winning that by the way is causing mat hysteria among the Democrats.
00:04:02
Speaker 3: That's worth it for itself.
00:04:04
Speaker 4: Then what you do is you try to go to the Hilton Bianco bit. I don't know if it will work, but it would be a giant something if you could pull it off, and you would at least have some chance of winning. Now, if you've given up on winning, it doesn't matter, does it, Which is also part of what's wrong with the party in the state and what makes us a joke.
00:04:29
Speaker 3: So you could argue who cares?
00:04:31
Speaker 4: But I don't know. I like to have, when presented with an opportunity, at least take the chance. The only really funny thing I wonder how many people are registering what you're urging people to do. I am in a place where I interact with significant numbers of people who are educated and quite well to do. You can't believe the people I'm finding that don't even know we have a top two system. So it's hard to explain this to them in terms of the top two primary if they don't want, no, we have one, and I would say, well, you'd be shocked at the people who, oh, really did we do that?
00:05:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, honey, we did that.
00:05:22
Speaker 4: But it's hard to get people to focus on that when they don't.
00:05:25
Speaker 3: Know you haven't.
00:05:26
Speaker 2: It's so funny to me.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there's something out there in the world of psychology that could explain this. But if you're part of a group that consistently loses, whether it's sports, whether it's in politics, whatever, you just kind of accept it, and you kind of sign on to this psychology of losing, and you in your mind, you know how you're going to lose, you know what the beats are, and you're just kind of ready for it. And it seems like with these emails that I get it is, well, what you're saying isn't going to work, so what's the point of even trying. And then number two is and the system is rigged against us anyway, so we're going to lose for that reason.
00:06:12
Speaker 2: And they just go on and on and on and on and on, and.
00:06:15
Speaker 1: They list me all of these reasons why the one opportunity they have to win isn't going to work, and I just can't wrap my head around that. I mean, maybe I don't know, I don't have a background in that world, but it's a crazy way to look at things.
00:06:33
Speaker 4: Well, I'm no psychologists, but I do know you can get into a loser mentality. And I'm not even going to say these are bad people. We've lost so much. I can understand going, well, it's not worth the effort because I were, we're not going to win anyway. Of course, if that's how you feel, then why well, First of all, those people may not vote, that's number one. Secondarily, though they're clearly paying attention, or they wouldn't be listening to you. They're the kind of people who should take the jump, take the leap. Why not?
00:07:08
Speaker 3: What have you got to lose?
00:07:11
Speaker 4: And if nothing else you go, what could you accomplish? Or you would really upset the Democrats if that actually happened. In fact, the Democrats know they can't let it happen. Have you seen that rather awful ad where they've pieced together I don't know what they are making Chad by uncle look like he's pro immigrant or illegal immigrant?
00:07:34
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I saw that one.
00:07:36
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:07:36
Speaker 4: Well, if what I read is true, and then they pair it with Donald Trump endorsing Steve Hilton and say this is paid for by Steve Hilton for governor twenty twenty six, that's I read actually paid for by the Democratic Governors Association, and that what they did when they were oh their version of copywriting names for their pack that operates here. One of the names is Steve Hilton for Governor twenty twenty six, something like, sponsored by patriots who want to make sure no Republican gets elected governor.
00:08:18
Speaker 3: So that.
00:08:20
Speaker 4: Was National Democrat money to make sure that what your people won't vote for didn't happen.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: I don't know. Something's wrong with that picture.
00:08:31
Speaker 1: And that should tell you something. If the Democratic Party is spending money telling you not to do what I'm telling you to do or what I'm telling you to consider, you know that's the threat.
00:08:44
Speaker 3: Yep, they can figure it out.
00:08:49
Speaker 4: Oh, John, I can't be mad at people for not seeing things as clearly as some of us do. But seriously, you guys, if that's how you look at it, there's no risk here. Okay, it's not like your If you believe it's all fixed and we can't do this and we can't do that, then there's no risk. Go for the two Republicans and if you get it, what a wonderful time we'll have.
00:09:19
Speaker 1: Let's shift gears here for a second and talk about these turnout numbers so far among Democrats, and these numbers are nowhere near where the Democratic Party wants them to be. How much of that do you think is them hanging on to their ballots strategically to vote at the last minute because they don't know which Democrat will emerge as the front runner. And how much of it is them not knowing what the hell to do because no one is telling them what to do, Not Galvin Newsom, not Nancy Pelosi, not Kamala Harris, none of them.
00:09:58
Speaker 3: Two things.
00:09:58
Speaker 4: One I think that you're point on that that you were making earlier is a really good one. And with their big leaders not telling them who to vote for, they may not even really realize there's an election. You know, there's no big stuff out there. No one's excited over these subernatorial candidates. There are no ballot propositions that are spending billions of dollars. They just may not really be focusing. What I think might also have an influence. I tried looking one of the sets of numbers I saw looking at the raw numbers, and actually from twenty twenty two, at that point, the raw number of Democrats wasn't that far off. If that's all you looked at. What was off was the relatively speaking significant increase in republic It can turn out now you could read that as more enthusiasm. It seems to me possible, although I don't know anyway. It seems to me possible that remember during Trump's first administration, he and all the other top people were going, the system's rigged, they're stealing ballots. Vote on election day, do not mail in ballots. Vote on election day. And I can tell you there's still a lot of Republicans who get very nervous at the idea of mailing in ballots. But it strikes me as possible that we've moved on enough from that that you're seeing Republicans who are perfectly happy to vote and who've gotten over that don't mail it in, In which case I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, except I'll take it, and your listeners should always remember when they talk about independence, we don't know squad about those people, except that there are very few true independents in this world. So they all tend to vote consistently one party or the other.
00:12:09
Speaker 3: We just don't know which these are.
00:12:12
Speaker 1: What do you make of the fact that Matt Mahon who is running as a relatively successful big city mayor in California against an awful field of Democratic candidates, that there is no appetite for him in the Democratic Party.
00:12:32
Speaker 4: I've tried to come up with any sort of positive explanation for that, and all I can say is that what drives the Democrat Party in this state is nationally are the way out progressives who are defining themselves as democratic socialists and they have no use for the man.
00:12:56
Speaker 3: Just leave it at that.
00:12:58
Speaker 1: Well, and it's not just him, because Antonio Viragosu was trying to brand himself the same way as a Democrat who is competent enough to deliver services to the people that Democrats care about and do it without busting the budget that in the old days was a new deal Democrat.
00:13:19
Speaker 4: Yep, no, no, But in today's Democrat Party, at least at the activist level, there's no place for him. We should scare everybody in this state which republic can stop sitting there twiddling your thumbs. Take this gamble and if it doesn't work, take the next one. For heaven's sakes, people, Oh well, what can we do? But yeah, no, I'm there, and I've heard where he's not exciting. Oh come on, hobby or but Sarah's exciting.
00:13:49
Speaker 3: Give me a break. Although have I told you? Have I told you?
00:13:53
Speaker 4: My one awful level, My favorite candidate is Katie Porter that she's actually pretty smart. She is incredibly condescending. She can't help her personality, and what she says about the others when they get on stage is worth the price of admission.
00:14:16
Speaker 1: Well, her problem is not that she's dumb. Her problem is that she has the personality of an hoa.
00:14:23
Speaker 3: Except a little louder. Yeah, no, I buy that.
00:14:26
Speaker 4: In fact, the only thing I wish I was seeing, because you realize she did twice called Chad Bionco cowboy. I think that's wonderful. He should have run an ad with vote for a cowboy Bianco.
00:14:39
Speaker 3: But what can we do here?
00:14:43
Speaker 2: All right?
00:14:44
Speaker 1: La is having a mary oral race right now, and Spencer Pratt is coming on very strong. We're now the betting markets have him as a solid favorite as making the November runoff. Originally, Karen Bass wanted to run against Spencer and not Nythia Ramen. It was reported this weekend that her strategy has now changed, where now she doesn't want to run against Spencer Pratt in the November matchup, she would prefer to run against Nitthia Rahmen in part because of Nitthia Rahman's poor performance at the debate.
00:15:18
Speaker 4: You mean the fact she didn't know which way was.
00:15:21
Speaker 2: Up that one.
00:15:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got the right woman. This ties into something I was saying a moment ago, John, about the low level of information of American voters in LA. Remember that Pratt should be just dead on arrivals because he is a Republican in a city where what do they even have a quarter of them registered Republicans. However, it's a non partisan race, and you go, oh, everyone knows he's a Republican, No, darling, everybody he does not know he's the Republican. So you're going on whether or not he can break through people's consciousness, and boy has he? You know whose consciousness? By the way, John, he's broken through on is the media. He puts on a show for them. He knows how to do that. That's more or less what he did. And they're slurping it up. And I'm not on social media, but my sister sends me the ads people are running on his behalf good happen in heaven here comes Batman to save the city of La. It's a tremendous show. People are paying attention. I don't think you have people who are just invested in and Karen Bass because.
00:16:47
Speaker 3: They like her.
00:16:50
Speaker 4: I think it's entirely possible under the circumstances that he can get in the runoff. By the way you do parallels or to the Dick Rardon times when you had serious problems. La has serious problems that all kinds of people recognize. And so while I'm certainly not saying he could win, I'm certainly not saying that anybody voting for Nicia Rahman is going to turn around and vote for Spencer Pratt. But you know, you never know what people do, and if you don't get in the runoffs, then it doesn't really matter.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: Doesn't how hard of a job is the California Democratic Party going to have turning people out in November if they have Karen Bass on the ballot, who nobody gets worked up over, who likes her. If you have a Democratic nominee for governor that no one wanted in the first place, and you have three or four competitive congressional elections in the state, and everything else is a foregone conclusion, how do you get people excited.
00:17:57
Speaker 2: To vote.
00:18:00
Speaker 4: Democrat Party? Yeah, you have a real part problem. My best guess is what you do Now, I'm totally making this up. If you're a good consultant, you look, I can't get people excited over my candidates. And in fact, four years ago, like for Karen bath as I recalled, they brought Joe Biden out. I know, the lovely Kamala was here, but they brought every high ranking Democrat in the country out. Well, I don't think Joe could find his way here this year. And I'm not really sure anyone wants Kamala. Oh god, that moment. I'm sorry, that's not nice, that's petty. But so you're going to look. And if I were, which I definitely am not a consultant worrying about that, I would go, Okay, what's going to be on the ballot? There are going to be some things on the ballot that people are spending big money on, and some the Billionaire's tax by the way, being one of them. And somewhere I need to work myself in there so that when they spend lots of money to get people out, I can piggyback on it. And like the billionaires tax, that straight up union, and then you will have all the money spent on the other side. I would look at the what are going to seem like the big issues, because I don't think people are going to get excited over these candidates.
00:19:31
Speaker 1: Michael Right, Professor, barbar Stone, Professor of Political Science Emeritus at California State University at Fullerton. Thanks so much for stopping by.
00:19:40
Speaker 3: Good to have you back.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com.
00:19:58
Speaker 2: And Randy.
00:19:59
Speaker 1: Now that we've cried the halfway point of today's show, if you missed out on an episode from last week when you were sitting in while I was in Alaska, that's easy to do.
00:20:08
Speaker 2: All you gotta do is search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcast, whether it's the Apple podcast app, iHeart Spotify, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe. You could download all the episodes. You do a Google on the YouTube you can get the free KABC app, the free KSFO app, get the KMJ now app. Because we're on in the Central Valley on Saturdays at noon, so many different ways to listen live to what we're doing every single day from noon to three. And you get download all of the podcasts. And when I say download, I mean download. That means you have the file. So even if you're in a place with a bad internet connection, you can still listen to this show and it won't be buffering like this, It's.
00:20:53
Speaker 4: Not so I.
00:20:58
Speaker 1: And you can also listen to us live on Election Night. We're gonna be here coming back from seven to nine pm on Tuesday, June second, so two weeks from tomorrow. It's already coming up. Everybody.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: We're gonna be broadcasting live giving our Election night results for all the important races facing California, and we're gonna be doing it on a tri simulcast. We're gonna be live on seven ninety KABC, We're gonna be live on eight ten KSFO, and yes, we are also going to be live on five eighty the Big KMJ in Fresno. And right now it's.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Time to open up the California Crime blodder.
00:21:40
Speaker 2: It's happened yet again, nye See. Time for the California crime blodder and Randy.
00:21:49
Speaker 1: I guess you could say this is a new age kind of crime because it involves crypto.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: A bunch of people from Tennessee thought it would be a good idea to come to California and strike it rich by kidnapping crypto bros. Go oh for more on this, We got a kpix in the Bay.
00:22:10
Speaker 5: Three men from Tennessee accused of traveling to the Bay Area to kidnap wealthy cryptocurrency holders. Katie Nielsen has the wild details on the home invasions and why crypto is such an attractive target.
00:22:24
Speaker 2: I mean because it's untraceable, because we pretty much invented a form of currency that is perfect for criminal activity. It's the new poker chips. You know, there are certain things that are a net positive or a net negative for society. How is crypto not a net negative?
00:22:45
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. I can't tell you the number of times people have tried to explain how crypto works.
00:22:51
Speaker 6: To me.
00:22:52
Speaker 1: I still don't understand it, so I'm a hard pass.
00:22:55
Speaker 7: This is all very reminiscent of the home invasion robberies that were happening in La about ten years ago.
00:23:00
Speaker 2: We're also nine years ago, eight years ago, seven years ago, six years ago. Fore.
00:23:04
Speaker 1: I can keep going. And in the valley it's been going on even longer than that.
00:23:09
Speaker 7: We're thieves. We're targeting influencers and celebrities who were flaunting handbags, watches, and jewelry on social media.
00:23:18
Speaker 2: Don't be doing that. Don't be flashing your cash. The crooks are paying attention.
00:23:23
Speaker 7: The new flex those who are posting their crypto wallets.
00:23:27
Speaker 2: If you're posting your crypto statements to show how much money you made on doge coin, someone's looking to rob you.
00:23:34
Speaker 1: No more flashing cash and talking trash.
00:23:37
Speaker 7: Dozens of pages of federal documents paint the picture of the crypto crime spree at the end of last year, as three suspects, Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindevon, and Jaden Rucker, all from the Nashville area, came to California.
00:23:51
Speaker 2: Wow, it's not even Memphis trash. We're getting Nashville trash out here.
00:23:56
Speaker 7: Came to California for one purpose, stealing crypto. The document show they started the home invasion spree in San Francisco on November twenty second, then went to San Jose, Sunny Vale, and Los Angeles, all in the period of about a month.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: Wells, they're hidding every part of the state that Southwest Airlines flies to.
00:24:17
Speaker 2: It's probably how they got there.
00:24:20
Speaker 7: Sources say. The victim of the first robbery is a well known tech startup investor, and according to documents, on November twenty second, one of the suspects posed as a UPS delivery person needing a signature for a package. To force his way into the house. The suspect bound the book.
00:24:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why I think we got to get rid of the signature thing, because people can pretend to be all kinds of different people, and I shouldn't have to sign something so you deliver my wine club shipment.
00:24:47
Speaker 1: I love the fact that the object that they're going after is new age and modern, but the method that they use to get it is very three stooges.
00:24:59
Speaker 7: The suspect bound the victim with duct tape and threaten to kill him while demanding access to the victim's cryptocurrency accounts, ultimately making off with more than six and a half million dollars.
00:25:10
Speaker 6: That's quite a heist that it is We've seen bad actors gravitate to where the money is, whether that's you know, narcotics or other types of areas. And today we're seeing more and more thefts involving cryptocurrency because now you can steal funds at the speed of the internet.
00:25:28
Speaker 2: Airy Redboard, We're not talking about stealing your cash or stealing your diamonds. Then they have to trade for cash. They can straight up log into your account, transfer all the crypto to them and you will never get it back.
00:25:40
Speaker 1: And this is where kidnappings are going now correct, where they're not asking for cash anymore, they're asking for crypto.
00:25:47
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:25:48
Speaker 7: Airy Redboard is a former federal prosecutor and now works with TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company. He isn't directly involved in the Californian cases, but says these types of home invasion crypto are getting more common.
00:26:02
Speaker 6: You don't need to take someone at gunpoint to their ATM machine anymore. They hold their ATM machine in the palm of your hand.
00:26:09
Speaker 7: Documents show the crew went on to another home in San Jose on December sixth and tried to get in by posing as a door dash driver.
00:26:21
Speaker 2: Well, if you knew you didn't order any fries. That'd be your first tip. Hey, I'm here with the big Mac. I didn't order a big Mac. Well someone here did. I guess I'll just throw this big mac away. No, no, no, don't do that.
00:26:40
Speaker 7: I'll be right there, and tried to get in by posing as a door dash driver, but the intended target never came to the door. On December twenty second, the documents say they went to Sunnyvale, where they once again posed as food delivery drivers and attempted to get inside the victim's home, but the victim fought back.
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Now do you think they had a real bag of food or they didn't even have They just had an empty bag. So they were trying to really pull the wool over your eyes.
00:27:07
Speaker 1: Now, wait a minute, I don't smell any pizza. That looks like a front.
00:27:11
Speaker 7: But the victim fought back and the would be thieves ran off. The last target was in Los Angeles, according to the documents, on December thirty first, they posed as a US Postal employee with a package.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: Well, how many costumes do these guys have?
00:27:29
Speaker 1: It sounds like one of them might work at Central Casting.
00:27:32
Speaker 2: They were ups, then they were door dash now that the postman maybe one of them was dating a stripper.
00:27:39
Speaker 7: They posed as a US Postal employee with a package to get inside the home and demanded access to the victim's crypto accounts, but got spooked by a helicopter flying overhead and left.
00:27:51
Speaker 2: Oh, that's just LA. That's just the every single day occurrence of the police helicopters. But I guess if you're from tennis See, you're not used to that.
00:28:02
Speaker 1: They think the cops are onto them, and little do they know, it's just KTLA doing a traffic report, but got.
00:28:08
Speaker 7: Spooped by a helicopter flying overhead and left. The documents don't say if they were successful in stealing any cryptocurrency. One question the documents don't answer is how the suspected thieves new to target these specific individuals.
00:28:24
Speaker 6: Oftentimes cryptocurrency founders or investors are very public people, and I think part of what's been going on here is you've had criminals who are doing online research and targeting very specific people they know to have cryptocurrency holdings or believe to have cryptocurrency holdings.
00:28:41
Speaker 7: He said. Sometimes it's not even that complicated.
00:28:44
Speaker 6: There's a lot of crypto holders have high profiles social media profiles.
00:28:49
Speaker 2: If you're posting about how much money you're making with your crypto, somebody's paying attention to it, and not to give you props. Well, I don't understand the implt for people to brag about their wealth on social media. And you see this happening all the time. Where someone buys a new car, they got to brag about it. Someone has a new handbag, they have to brag about it. Someone has new jewelry, they have to brag about it. You do realize you're waving red in front of the ball. Well, what they're probably thinking, especially if you're a prominent crypto influencer, is that if you pull, if you promote how much money you made with a certain coin and a bunch of idiots decide to spend their life savings on it, you're going to make a whole bunch of money.
00:29:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could also end up in the trunk of someone's car and on your way to reno.
00:29:41
Speaker 6: There's a lot of crypto holders have high profiles social media profiles, particularly on X and other platforms. Sometimes even people will go as far.
00:29:51
Speaker 2: I'm so cautious now I post my vacation photos three weeks later.
00:29:56
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to ask you a question. I want an honest answer. If a crypto influencer ho does nothing but brag about their wealth and all of the expensive toys that they own gets thrown in the back of someone's trunk and kidnapped for days, do you have any sympathy for that person at all?
00:30:26
Speaker 2: Well, you don't want anybody to be threatened with their lives. That's not what I asked. Do you have any sympathy for that person at all? No comment.
00:30:38
Speaker 6: Particularly on x and other platforms. Sometimes even people will go as far as to sort of show their crypto wallets to compare and contrast them with others, which is essentially showing your bank account holdings, and bad actors are trolling these platforms looking for targets.
00:30:56
Speaker 7: All three suspects are facing a number of federal charges, including attempted kidnapping and conspiracy to commit robbery. If convicted, they face twenty years to life in prison.
00:31:08
Speaker 2: There you go, the crypto robbers that came here from Tennessee to steal the crypto holdings of dumb influencers who were dumb enough to post about it on social media. I'm telling you. Everyone out there.
00:31:27
Speaker 1: Should do everything they can to not make themselves a target. We live in California, where nobody goes to jail for anything. I don't wear any rings.
00:31:41
Speaker 2: I don't. I do wear a.
00:31:42
Speaker 1: Watch now, but that's just because I don't want to be late places. I don't wear fancy clothes. I wear size fourteen orthopedic shoes. I drive a forward, for Heaven's sake. I do everything I can to fly.
00:31:59
Speaker 2: Under the radar.
00:32:02
Speaker 1: Because I have a million and one problems and I don't need a gun stuck in my face to add to the list.
00:32:09
Speaker 2: Well, and criminals would probably see you and just take pity on you when they see your angels hat.
00:32:16
Speaker 1: They should eight hundred two two two five two two two East Telephone number one, eight hundred two two two five two two two. And right now it's time to open up the California crime bladders to catchh It his dummy.
00:32:32
Speaker 2: We shouldn't make this stuff up. If we tried, I said, hell no, I'm very point. Let me get up one out of here.
00:32:39
Speaker 1: It's the California Crime Blodder and this edition takes us well. Right next to my dentist office, we.
00:32:49
Speaker 2: Have yet another attempted burglary, this time in the mid Wiltshire area, but this time the burglars got scared up for more. Here is Fox in Los Angeles.
00:33:01
Speaker 8: Local homeowners scares off a group of burglars trying to break into his house in the mid Wiltshire area. Tonight, LAPD says the suspects are still on the run.
00:33:10
Speaker 2: Well, we knew that part.
00:33:12
Speaker 8: It's La Box Seven's Nick Garcia talking with that homeowner who says the thieves seem to have no fear.
00:33:21
Speaker 9: The Los Angeles Police Department's helicopter over mid Wiltshire just after midnight searching for at least three suspects, two of them.
00:33:29
Speaker 2: That's probably that helicopter that scared off the crypto kidnappers. It all ties together.
00:33:37
Speaker 9: Two of them seen here trying to break into a home on Mullen Avenue near Ninth Street.
00:33:43
Speaker 8: There's no evidence of any type of intrigue.
00:33:47
Speaker 10: We have the helicopter above also helping us check backyards, so there's no evidence of four centuries and they were pretty brazen they.
00:33:55
Speaker 2: By the way, this shows you the difference in resources. If a burglary happens in Midwaleshire, they send out the chopper. If they burglary happens in the valley, they send someone out about an hour later, fill out a form online.
00:34:11
Speaker 10: They were even when I yelled out, It seemed like they were just continuing what they were going to do, so we called nine one one.
00:34:20
Speaker 9: When he continued yelling, they took off. This is just the latest attempted breaking in Los Angeles.
00:34:27
Speaker 2: You see a neighborhood right, didn't Karen Bess just say crime is at an all time low? Oh yeah, she's doing a bang up job.
00:34:33
Speaker 9: You see a neighborhood watch sign is posted not far from where those attempted burglaries happened. But look the Homeolder last night says it took nearly twenty minutes for LAPD to actually get here. Just an example.
00:34:45
Speaker 2: That is way faster than every other story we've heard from the valley, where it's like an hour at best, but not even close to Orange County.
00:34:54
Speaker 9: But look the Homeolder last night says it took nearly twenty minutes for LAPD to actually get here, Just an example of how understaffed they may be. In fact, neighbors in this residential area tell me, if they don't have private security, they don't feel safe.
00:35:10
Speaker 10: The mid Wiltshire area has just been hit so much by home home break ins, and it seems like they're getting more aggressive.
00:35:17
Speaker 2: He says his homey feel like if they pay for that guy in the CROWNVIC that's not a police officer to drive around the neighborhood, they feel safe. Yeah, well, guess what if there are a bunch of guys in ski masks, wearing all black clothing and having guns on them. That guy in the CROWNVIC isn't sticking around either.
00:35:37
Speaker 9: He says his home has been broken into three times in the last four years.
00:35:43
Speaker 2: Yep, crime is down, Karen Bass, good job, madam Mayor. How do you think this guy's voting? That's the problem though. People get robbed left and right.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the population of la that are that's the victim of these crimes, yet they still vote for the people who allow it to happen. No, I don't know enough to give you any good information, but good luck finding.
00:36:07
Speaker 9: Someone who does. He says his home has been broken into three times in the last four years.
00:36:13
Speaker 10: Doesn't seem like they're afraid at all. There's no fear for them, there's no consequences.
00:36:20
Speaker 9: Nick Garcia Fox eleven News.
00:36:23
Speaker 2: There you go, just the latest attempted break in in Los Angeles.
00:36:29
Speaker 1: But this time, Randy, at least you could hang your hat on this. It wasn't in the San Fernando Valley.
00:36:35
Speaker 2: Yes, that was nice. It's getting really irritating. Every single day I pop open the youtubes and there's another valley one up. There's another valley, one up, there's another valley one. I would like to at this point find someone who is actually voting for Karen Bass in the election and just pick their brain and just find out out why what went wrong in your life that led you to the point to where you think it's acceptable to live this way. No, I could be like Jane Goodall and just standing there with a clipboard writing notes like, Okay, we have someone who's been robbed multiple times. They can't buy insurance anymore because they're once safe, neighborhood is now too dangerous. There are homeless encampments on their blog, and yet they seem okay with it. Hmm, let's study.
00:37:43
Speaker 4: Oh, you're so optimistic.
00:37:46
Speaker 1: There are people out there who are going to do that. She is gonna finish first. The only question is who will finish second, don't forget George Gascone when he finally lost the election, he finished first in the primary and then he lost by a lot. And she's gonna finish first in the primary. Let's just hope that she suffers the same fate as George Gascon. All Right, we've got one more hour coming up on The John Phillips Show, Don't You Go Anywhere.
Speaker 1: And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon on The John Phillips Show, broadcasting live from Cairo in Seattle, Washington. Mister Randy Wiggs in Culver City, John.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: We have an update on the Sandy fire that is burning in Siam Valley. Is now up to about five hundred acres. There are mandatory evacuations. You can check that out at emergency dot Ventura County dot gov. We have seen some structures threatened. It's not looking great out there.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: No, it is not so if you're in Ventura County, stay safe because these fires can move at a very rapid pace. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one. Eight hundred two two two five two two two. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. She is a professor of political science emeritus at California State University at Fullerton. Professor Barbara Stone.
00:00:52
Speaker 3: Welcome, Hi, John, welcome back.
00:00:55
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so Earlier today I talked about a lot of the emails that I've been getting from people who are upset with me for saying that Republicans should play for both spots on the November ballot. That is the only path forward I see for a Republican governor in California, and given the turnout numbers that we have so far, and of course those can change. Democrats could strategically be holding on to their ballots until the very last minute, and those numbers could change wildly.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: We don't know.
00:01:29
Speaker 1: That's the future. If we could see the future, I don't think we'd be working right now. But the way I see it is that is the best if not only play at winning and trying to get behind one candidate to make it a Republican versus a Democratic race in November is a sure way to lose your thoughts.
00:01:52
Speaker 4: My first thought is I hope that your listeners understand that you are by far the most intelligent voice on this sub checked out there, and no one else seems to quite get it. And that doesn't mean they have to do what you're telling them, but they need to listen because it's the best information they're going to get. As far as what Republican voters should do.
00:02:19
Speaker 3: They actually.
00:02:22
Speaker 4: John Sometimes I think I'm about to say something truly profound that's just out of step with the way normal people think. In this particular case, what I'm going to say is your listeners have a choice. If they haven't voted yet, they can do what you repeated or Ingram is having urged, which is get together vote for Steve Hilton, and then we won't be embarrassed by not having a Republican in the runoff.
00:02:53
Speaker 3: John.
00:02:55
Speaker 4: That's fine if that's how you think. Unfortunately, at this moment, the California Republican Party is an embarrassment. And I can tell you how it got there over many years. But the bottom line is we're not going to win. I don't care who we run for governor. That person will get plus or minus forty percent, the Democrat will get the sixty percent, and that will be the end of it. But just look at what happened two years ago with the US Senate when Adam Schiff beat Steve Garvey. Steve Garvey absolutely stopped campaigning, but it didn't really matter. He got about what Republicans get. So if that to you is making us look good so we can cover up how bad we are, how weak we are in this state, then fine, you should vote that way. If, on the other hand, you want even some little chance of winning, it's small, but the chance of winning that by the way is causing mat hysteria among the Democrats.
00:04:02
Speaker 3: That's worth it for itself.
00:04:04
Speaker 4: Then what you do is you try to go to the Hilton Bianco bit. I don't know if it will work, but it would be a giant something if you could pull it off, and you would at least have some chance of winning. Now, if you've given up on winning, it doesn't matter, does it, Which is also part of what's wrong with the party in the state and what makes us a joke.
00:04:29
Speaker 3: So you could argue who cares?
00:04:31
Speaker 4: But I don't know. I like to have, when presented with an opportunity, at least take the chance. The only really funny thing I wonder how many people are registering what you're urging people to do. I am in a place where I interact with significant numbers of people who are educated and quite well to do. You can't believe the people I'm finding that don't even know we have a top two system. So it's hard to explain this to them in terms of the top two primary if they don't want, no, we have one, and I would say, well, you'd be shocked at the people who, oh, really did we do that?
00:05:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, honey, we did that.
00:05:22
Speaker 4: But it's hard to get people to focus on that when they don't.
00:05:25
Speaker 3: Know you haven't.
00:05:26
Speaker 2: It's so funny to me.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there's something out there in the world of psychology that could explain this. But if you're part of a group that consistently loses, whether it's sports, whether it's in politics, whatever, you just kind of accept it, and you kind of sign on to this psychology of losing, and you in your mind, you know how you're going to lose, you know what the beats are, and you're just kind of ready for it. And it seems like with these emails that I get it is, well, what you're saying isn't going to work, so what's the point of even trying. And then number two is and the system is rigged against us anyway, so we're going to lose for that reason.
00:06:12
Speaker 2: And they just go on and on and on and on and on, and.
00:06:15
Speaker 1: They list me all of these reasons why the one opportunity they have to win isn't going to work, and I just can't wrap my head around that. I mean, maybe I don't know, I don't have a background in that world, but it's a crazy way to look at things.
00:06:33
Speaker 4: Well, I'm no psychologists, but I do know you can get into a loser mentality. And I'm not even going to say these are bad people. We've lost so much. I can understand going, well, it's not worth the effort because I were, we're not going to win anyway. Of course, if that's how you feel, then why well, First of all, those people may not vote, that's number one. Secondarily, though they're clearly paying attention, or they wouldn't be listening to you. They're the kind of people who should take the jump, take the leap. Why not?
00:07:08
Speaker 3: What have you got to lose?
00:07:11
Speaker 4: And if nothing else you go, what could you accomplish? Or you would really upset the Democrats if that actually happened. In fact, the Democrats know they can't let it happen. Have you seen that rather awful ad where they've pieced together I don't know what they are making Chad by uncle look like he's pro immigrant or illegal immigrant?
00:07:34
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I saw that one.
00:07:36
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:07:36
Speaker 4: Well, if what I read is true, and then they pair it with Donald Trump endorsing Steve Hilton and say this is paid for by Steve Hilton for governor twenty twenty six, that's I read actually paid for by the Democratic Governors Association, and that what they did when they were oh their version of copywriting names for their pack that operates here. One of the names is Steve Hilton for Governor twenty twenty six, something like, sponsored by patriots who want to make sure no Republican gets elected governor.
00:08:18
Speaker 3: So that.
00:08:20
Speaker 4: Was National Democrat money to make sure that what your people won't vote for didn't happen.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: I don't know. Something's wrong with that picture.
00:08:31
Speaker 1: And that should tell you something. If the Democratic Party is spending money telling you not to do what I'm telling you to do or what I'm telling you to consider, you know that's the threat.
00:08:44
Speaker 3: Yep, they can figure it out.
00:08:49
Speaker 4: Oh, John, I can't be mad at people for not seeing things as clearly as some of us do. But seriously, you guys, if that's how you look at it, there's no risk here. Okay, it's not like your If you believe it's all fixed and we can't do this and we can't do that, then there's no risk. Go for the two Republicans and if you get it, what a wonderful time we'll have.
00:09:19
Speaker 1: Let's shift gears here for a second and talk about these turnout numbers so far among Democrats, and these numbers are nowhere near where the Democratic Party wants them to be. How much of that do you think is them hanging on to their ballots strategically to vote at the last minute because they don't know which Democrat will emerge as the front runner. And how much of it is them not knowing what the hell to do because no one is telling them what to do, Not Galvin Newsom, not Nancy Pelosi, not Kamala Harris, none of them.
00:09:58
Speaker 3: Two things.
00:09:58
Speaker 4: One I think that you're point on that that you were making earlier is a really good one. And with their big leaders not telling them who to vote for, they may not even really realize there's an election. You know, there's no big stuff out there. No one's excited over these subernatorial candidates. There are no ballot propositions that are spending billions of dollars. They just may not really be focusing. What I think might also have an influence. I tried looking one of the sets of numbers I saw looking at the raw numbers, and actually from twenty twenty two, at that point, the raw number of Democrats wasn't that far off. If that's all you looked at. What was off was the relatively speaking significant increase in republic It can turn out now you could read that as more enthusiasm. It seems to me possible, although I don't know anyway. It seems to me possible that remember during Trump's first administration, he and all the other top people were going, the system's rigged, they're stealing ballots. Vote on election day, do not mail in ballots. Vote on election day. And I can tell you there's still a lot of Republicans who get very nervous at the idea of mailing in ballots. But it strikes me as possible that we've moved on enough from that that you're seeing Republicans who are perfectly happy to vote and who've gotten over that don't mail it in, In which case I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, except I'll take it, and your listeners should always remember when they talk about independence, we don't know squad about those people, except that there are very few true independents in this world. So they all tend to vote consistently one party or the other.
00:12:09
Speaker 3: We just don't know which these are.
00:12:12
Speaker 1: What do you make of the fact that Matt Mahon who is running as a relatively successful big city mayor in California against an awful field of Democratic candidates, that there is no appetite for him in the Democratic Party.
00:12:32
Speaker 4: I've tried to come up with any sort of positive explanation for that, and all I can say is that what drives the Democrat Party in this state is nationally are the way out progressives who are defining themselves as democratic socialists and they have no use for the man.
00:12:56
Speaker 3: Just leave it at that.
00:12:58
Speaker 1: Well, and it's not just him, because Antonio Viragosu was trying to brand himself the same way as a Democrat who is competent enough to deliver services to the people that Democrats care about and do it without busting the budget that in the old days was a new deal Democrat.
00:13:19
Speaker 4: Yep, no, no, But in today's Democrat Party, at least at the activist level, there's no place for him. We should scare everybody in this state which republic can stop sitting there twiddling your thumbs. Take this gamble and if it doesn't work, take the next one. For heaven's sakes, people, Oh well, what can we do? But yeah, no, I'm there, and I've heard where he's not exciting. Oh come on, hobby or but Sarah's exciting.
00:13:49
Speaker 3: Give me a break. Although have I told you? Have I told you?
00:13:53
Speaker 4: My one awful level, My favorite candidate is Katie Porter that she's actually pretty smart. She is incredibly condescending. She can't help her personality, and what she says about the others when they get on stage is worth the price of admission.
00:14:16
Speaker 1: Well, her problem is not that she's dumb. Her problem is that she has the personality of an hoa.
00:14:23
Speaker 3: Except a little louder. Yeah, no, I buy that.
00:14:26
Speaker 4: In fact, the only thing I wish I was seeing, because you realize she did twice called Chad Bionco cowboy. I think that's wonderful. He should have run an ad with vote for a cowboy Bianco.
00:14:39
Speaker 3: But what can we do here?
00:14:43
Speaker 2: All right?
00:14:44
Speaker 1: La is having a mary oral race right now, and Spencer Pratt is coming on very strong. We're now the betting markets have him as a solid favorite as making the November runoff. Originally, Karen Bass wanted to run against Spencer and not Nythia Ramen. It was reported this weekend that her strategy has now changed, where now she doesn't want to run against Spencer Pratt in the November matchup, she would prefer to run against Nitthia Rahmen in part because of Nitthia Rahman's poor performance at the debate.
00:15:18
Speaker 4: You mean the fact she didn't know which way was.
00:15:21
Speaker 2: Up that one.
00:15:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got the right woman. This ties into something I was saying a moment ago, John, about the low level of information of American voters in LA. Remember that Pratt should be just dead on arrivals because he is a Republican in a city where what do they even have a quarter of them registered Republicans. However, it's a non partisan race, and you go, oh, everyone knows he's a Republican, No, darling, everybody he does not know he's the Republican. So you're going on whether or not he can break through people's consciousness, and boy has he? You know whose consciousness? By the way, John, he's broken through on is the media. He puts on a show for them. He knows how to do that. That's more or less what he did. And they're slurping it up. And I'm not on social media, but my sister sends me the ads people are running on his behalf good happen in heaven here comes Batman to save the city of La. It's a tremendous show. People are paying attention. I don't think you have people who are just invested in and Karen Bass because.
00:16:47
Speaker 3: They like her.
00:16:50
Speaker 4: I think it's entirely possible under the circumstances that he can get in the runoff. By the way you do parallels or to the Dick Rardon times when you had serious problems. La has serious problems that all kinds of people recognize. And so while I'm certainly not saying he could win, I'm certainly not saying that anybody voting for Nicia Rahman is going to turn around and vote for Spencer Pratt. But you know, you never know what people do, and if you don't get in the runoffs, then it doesn't really matter.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: Doesn't how hard of a job is the California Democratic Party going to have turning people out in November if they have Karen Bass on the ballot, who nobody gets worked up over, who likes her. If you have a Democratic nominee for governor that no one wanted in the first place, and you have three or four competitive congressional elections in the state, and everything else is a foregone conclusion, how do you get people excited.
00:17:57
Speaker 2: To vote.
00:18:00
Speaker 4: Democrat Party? Yeah, you have a real part problem. My best guess is what you do Now, I'm totally making this up. If you're a good consultant, you look, I can't get people excited over my candidates. And in fact, four years ago, like for Karen bath as I recalled, they brought Joe Biden out. I know, the lovely Kamala was here, but they brought every high ranking Democrat in the country out. Well, I don't think Joe could find his way here this year. And I'm not really sure anyone wants Kamala. Oh god, that moment. I'm sorry, that's not nice, that's petty. But so you're going to look. And if I were, which I definitely am not a consultant worrying about that, I would go, Okay, what's going to be on the ballot? There are going to be some things on the ballot that people are spending big money on, and some the Billionaire's tax by the way, being one of them. And somewhere I need to work myself in there so that when they spend lots of money to get people out, I can piggyback on it. And like the billionaires tax, that straight up union, and then you will have all the money spent on the other side. I would look at the what are going to seem like the big issues, because I don't think people are going to get excited over these candidates.
00:19:31
Speaker 1: Michael Right, Professor, barbar Stone, Professor of Political Science Emeritus at California State University at Fullerton. Thanks so much for stopping by.
00:19:40
Speaker 3: Good to have you back.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com.
00:19:58
Speaker 2: And Randy.
00:19:59
Speaker 1: Now that we've cried the halfway point of today's show, if you missed out on an episode from last week when you were sitting in while I was in Alaska, that's easy to do.
00:20:08
Speaker 2: All you gotta do is search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcast, whether it's the Apple podcast app, iHeart Spotify, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe. You could download all the episodes. You do a Google on the YouTube you can get the free KABC app, the free KSFO app, get the KMJ now app. Because we're on in the Central Valley on Saturdays at noon, so many different ways to listen live to what we're doing every single day from noon to three. And you get download all of the podcasts. And when I say download, I mean download. That means you have the file. So even if you're in a place with a bad internet connection, you can still listen to this show and it won't be buffering like this, It's.
00:20:53
Speaker 4: Not so I.
00:20:58
Speaker 1: And you can also listen to us live on Election Night. We're gonna be here coming back from seven to nine pm on Tuesday, June second, so two weeks from tomorrow. It's already coming up. Everybody.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: We're gonna be broadcasting live giving our Election night results for all the important races facing California, and we're gonna be doing it on a tri simulcast. We're gonna be live on seven ninety KABC, We're gonna be live on eight ten KSFO, and yes, we are also going to be live on five eighty the Big KMJ in Fresno. And right now it's.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Time to open up the California Crime blodder.
00:21:40
Speaker 2: It's happened yet again, nye See. Time for the California crime blodder and Randy.
00:21:49
Speaker 1: I guess you could say this is a new age kind of crime because it involves crypto.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: A bunch of people from Tennessee thought it would be a good idea to come to California and strike it rich by kidnapping crypto bros. Go oh for more on this, We got a kpix in the Bay.
00:22:10
Speaker 5: Three men from Tennessee accused of traveling to the Bay Area to kidnap wealthy cryptocurrency holders. Katie Nielsen has the wild details on the home invasions and why crypto is such an attractive target.
00:22:24
Speaker 2: I mean because it's untraceable, because we pretty much invented a form of currency that is perfect for criminal activity. It's the new poker chips. You know, there are certain things that are a net positive or a net negative for society. How is crypto not a net negative?
00:22:45
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. I can't tell you the number of times people have tried to explain how crypto works.
00:22:51
Speaker 6: To me.
00:22:52
Speaker 1: I still don't understand it, so I'm a hard pass.
00:22:55
Speaker 7: This is all very reminiscent of the home invasion robberies that were happening in La about ten years ago.
00:23:00
Speaker 2: We're also nine years ago, eight years ago, seven years ago, six years ago. Fore.
00:23:04
Speaker 1: I can keep going. And in the valley it's been going on even longer than that.
00:23:09
Speaker 7: We're thieves. We're targeting influencers and celebrities who were flaunting handbags, watches, and jewelry on social media.
00:23:18
Speaker 2: Don't be doing that. Don't be flashing your cash. The crooks are paying attention.
00:23:23
Speaker 7: The new flex those who are posting their crypto wallets.
00:23:27
Speaker 2: If you're posting your crypto statements to show how much money you made on doge coin, someone's looking to rob you.
00:23:34
Speaker 1: No more flashing cash and talking trash.
00:23:37
Speaker 7: Dozens of pages of federal documents paint the picture of the crypto crime spree at the end of last year, as three suspects, Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindevon, and Jaden Rucker, all from the Nashville area, came to California.
00:23:51
Speaker 2: Wow, it's not even Memphis trash. We're getting Nashville trash out here.
00:23:56
Speaker 7: Came to California for one purpose, stealing crypto. The document show they started the home invasion spree in San Francisco on November twenty second, then went to San Jose, Sunny Vale, and Los Angeles, all in the period of about a month.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: Wells, they're hidding every part of the state that Southwest Airlines flies to.
00:24:17
Speaker 2: It's probably how they got there.
00:24:20
Speaker 7: Sources say. The victim of the first robbery is a well known tech startup investor, and according to documents, on November twenty second, one of the suspects posed as a UPS delivery person needing a signature for a package. To force his way into the house. The suspect bound the book.
00:24:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why I think we got to get rid of the signature thing, because people can pretend to be all kinds of different people, and I shouldn't have to sign something so you deliver my wine club shipment.
00:24:47
Speaker 1: I love the fact that the object that they're going after is new age and modern, but the method that they use to get it is very three stooges.
00:24:59
Speaker 7: The suspect bound the victim with duct tape and threaten to kill him while demanding access to the victim's cryptocurrency accounts, ultimately making off with more than six and a half million dollars.
00:25:10
Speaker 6: That's quite a heist that it is We've seen bad actors gravitate to where the money is, whether that's you know, narcotics or other types of areas. And today we're seeing more and more thefts involving cryptocurrency because now you can steal funds at the speed of the internet.
00:25:28
Speaker 2: Airy Redboard, We're not talking about stealing your cash or stealing your diamonds. Then they have to trade for cash. They can straight up log into your account, transfer all the crypto to them and you will never get it back.
00:25:40
Speaker 1: And this is where kidnappings are going now correct, where they're not asking for cash anymore, they're asking for crypto.
00:25:47
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:25:48
Speaker 7: Airy Redboard is a former federal prosecutor and now works with TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company. He isn't directly involved in the Californian cases, but says these types of home invasion crypto are getting more common.
00:26:02
Speaker 6: You don't need to take someone at gunpoint to their ATM machine anymore. They hold their ATM machine in the palm of your hand.
00:26:09
Speaker 7: Documents show the crew went on to another home in San Jose on December sixth and tried to get in by posing as a door dash driver.
00:26:21
Speaker 2: Well, if you knew you didn't order any fries. That'd be your first tip. Hey, I'm here with the big Mac. I didn't order a big Mac. Well someone here did. I guess I'll just throw this big mac away. No, no, no, don't do that.
00:26:40
Speaker 7: I'll be right there, and tried to get in by posing as a door dash driver, but the intended target never came to the door. On December twenty second, the documents say they went to Sunnyvale, where they once again posed as food delivery drivers and attempted to get inside the victim's home, but the victim fought back.
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Now do you think they had a real bag of food or they didn't even have They just had an empty bag. So they were trying to really pull the wool over your eyes.
00:27:07
Speaker 1: Now, wait a minute, I don't smell any pizza. That looks like a front.
00:27:11
Speaker 7: But the victim fought back and the would be thieves ran off. The last target was in Los Angeles, according to the documents, on December thirty first, they posed as a US Postal employee with a package.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: Well, how many costumes do these guys have?
00:27:29
Speaker 1: It sounds like one of them might work at Central Casting.
00:27:32
Speaker 2: They were ups, then they were door dash now that the postman maybe one of them was dating a stripper.
00:27:39
Speaker 7: They posed as a US Postal employee with a package to get inside the home and demanded access to the victim's crypto accounts, but got spooked by a helicopter flying overhead and left.
00:27:51
Speaker 2: Oh, that's just LA. That's just the every single day occurrence of the police helicopters. But I guess if you're from tennis See, you're not used to that.
00:28:02
Speaker 1: They think the cops are onto them, and little do they know, it's just KTLA doing a traffic report, but got.
00:28:08
Speaker 7: Spooped by a helicopter flying overhead and left. The documents don't say if they were successful in stealing any cryptocurrency. One question the documents don't answer is how the suspected thieves new to target these specific individuals.
00:28:24
Speaker 6: Oftentimes cryptocurrency founders or investors are very public people, and I think part of what's been going on here is you've had criminals who are doing online research and targeting very specific people they know to have cryptocurrency holdings or believe to have cryptocurrency holdings.
00:28:41
Speaker 7: He said. Sometimes it's not even that complicated.
00:28:44
Speaker 6: There's a lot of crypto holders have high profiles social media profiles.
00:28:49
Speaker 2: If you're posting about how much money you're making with your crypto, somebody's paying attention to it, and not to give you props. Well, I don't understand the implt for people to brag about their wealth on social media. And you see this happening all the time. Where someone buys a new car, they got to brag about it. Someone has a new handbag, they have to brag about it. Someone has new jewelry, they have to brag about it. You do realize you're waving red in front of the ball. Well, what they're probably thinking, especially if you're a prominent crypto influencer, is that if you pull, if you promote how much money you made with a certain coin and a bunch of idiots decide to spend their life savings on it, you're going to make a whole bunch of money.
00:29:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could also end up in the trunk of someone's car and on your way to reno.
00:29:41
Speaker 6: There's a lot of crypto holders have high profiles social media profiles, particularly on X and other platforms. Sometimes even people will go as far.
00:29:51
Speaker 2: I'm so cautious now I post my vacation photos three weeks later.
00:29:56
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to ask you a question. I want an honest answer. If a crypto influencer ho does nothing but brag about their wealth and all of the expensive toys that they own gets thrown in the back of someone's trunk and kidnapped for days, do you have any sympathy for that person at all?
00:30:26
Speaker 2: Well, you don't want anybody to be threatened with their lives. That's not what I asked. Do you have any sympathy for that person at all? No comment.
00:30:38
Speaker 6: Particularly on x and other platforms. Sometimes even people will go as far as to sort of show their crypto wallets to compare and contrast them with others, which is essentially showing your bank account holdings, and bad actors are trolling these platforms looking for targets.
00:30:56
Speaker 7: All three suspects are facing a number of federal charges, including attempted kidnapping and conspiracy to commit robbery. If convicted, they face twenty years to life in prison.
00:31:08
Speaker 2: There you go, the crypto robbers that came here from Tennessee to steal the crypto holdings of dumb influencers who were dumb enough to post about it on social media. I'm telling you. Everyone out there.
00:31:27
Speaker 1: Should do everything they can to not make themselves a target. We live in California, where nobody goes to jail for anything. I don't wear any rings.
00:31:41
Speaker 2: I don't. I do wear a.
00:31:42
Speaker 1: Watch now, but that's just because I don't want to be late places. I don't wear fancy clothes. I wear size fourteen orthopedic shoes. I drive a forward, for Heaven's sake. I do everything I can to fly.
00:31:59
Speaker 2: Under the radar.
00:32:02
Speaker 1: Because I have a million and one problems and I don't need a gun stuck in my face to add to the list.
00:32:09
Speaker 2: Well, and criminals would probably see you and just take pity on you when they see your angels hat.
00:32:16
Speaker 1: They should eight hundred two two two five two two two East Telephone number one, eight hundred two two two five two two two. And right now it's time to open up the California crime bladders to catchh It his dummy.
00:32:32
Speaker 2: We shouldn't make this stuff up. If we tried, I said, hell no, I'm very point. Let me get up one out of here.
00:32:39
Speaker 1: It's the California Crime Blodder and this edition takes us well. Right next to my dentist office, we.
00:32:49
Speaker 2: Have yet another attempted burglary, this time in the mid Wiltshire area, but this time the burglars got scared up for more. Here is Fox in Los Angeles.
00:33:01
Speaker 8: Local homeowners scares off a group of burglars trying to break into his house in the mid Wiltshire area. Tonight, LAPD says the suspects are still on the run.
00:33:10
Speaker 2: Well, we knew that part.
00:33:12
Speaker 8: It's La Box Seven's Nick Garcia talking with that homeowner who says the thieves seem to have no fear.
00:33:21
Speaker 9: The Los Angeles Police Department's helicopter over mid Wiltshire just after midnight searching for at least three suspects, two of them.
00:33:29
Speaker 2: That's probably that helicopter that scared off the crypto kidnappers. It all ties together.
00:33:37
Speaker 9: Two of them seen here trying to break into a home on Mullen Avenue near Ninth Street.
00:33:43
Speaker 8: There's no evidence of any type of intrigue.
00:33:47
Speaker 10: We have the helicopter above also helping us check backyards, so there's no evidence of four centuries and they were pretty brazen they.
00:33:55
Speaker 2: By the way, this shows you the difference in resources. If a burglary happens in Midwaleshire, they send out the chopper. If they burglary happens in the valley, they send someone out about an hour later, fill out a form online.
00:34:11
Speaker 10: They were even when I yelled out, It seemed like they were just continuing what they were going to do, so we called nine one one.
00:34:20
Speaker 9: When he continued yelling, they took off. This is just the latest attempted breaking in Los Angeles.
00:34:27
Speaker 2: You see a neighborhood right, didn't Karen Bess just say crime is at an all time low? Oh yeah, she's doing a bang up job.
00:34:33
Speaker 9: You see a neighborhood watch sign is posted not far from where those attempted burglaries happened. But look the Homeolder last night says it took nearly twenty minutes for LAPD to actually get here. Just an example.
00:34:45
Speaker 2: That is way faster than every other story we've heard from the valley, where it's like an hour at best, but not even close to Orange County.
00:34:54
Speaker 9: But look the Homeolder last night says it took nearly twenty minutes for LAPD to actually get here, Just an example of how understaffed they may be. In fact, neighbors in this residential area tell me, if they don't have private security, they don't feel safe.
00:35:10
Speaker 10: The mid Wiltshire area has just been hit so much by home home break ins, and it seems like they're getting more aggressive.
00:35:17
Speaker 2: He says his homey feel like if they pay for that guy in the CROWNVIC that's not a police officer to drive around the neighborhood, they feel safe. Yeah, well, guess what if there are a bunch of guys in ski masks, wearing all black clothing and having guns on them. That guy in the CROWNVIC isn't sticking around either.
00:35:37
Speaker 9: He says his home has been broken into three times in the last four years.
00:35:43
Speaker 2: Yep, crime is down, Karen Bass, good job, madam Mayor. How do you think this guy's voting? That's the problem though. People get robbed left and right.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the population of la that are that's the victim of these crimes, yet they still vote for the people who allow it to happen. No, I don't know enough to give you any good information, but good luck finding.
00:36:07
Speaker 9: Someone who does. He says his home has been broken into three times in the last four years.
00:36:13
Speaker 10: Doesn't seem like they're afraid at all. There's no fear for them, there's no consequences.
00:36:20
Speaker 9: Nick Garcia Fox eleven News.
00:36:23
Speaker 2: There you go, just the latest attempted break in in Los Angeles.
00:36:29
Speaker 1: But this time, Randy, at least you could hang your hat on this. It wasn't in the San Fernando Valley.
00:36:35
Speaker 2: Yes, that was nice. It's getting really irritating. Every single day I pop open the youtubes and there's another valley one up. There's another valley, one up, there's another valley one. I would like to at this point find someone who is actually voting for Karen Bass in the election and just pick their brain and just find out out why what went wrong in your life that led you to the point to where you think it's acceptable to live this way. No, I could be like Jane Goodall and just standing there with a clipboard writing notes like, Okay, we have someone who's been robbed multiple times. They can't buy insurance anymore because they're once safe, neighborhood is now too dangerous. There are homeless encampments on their blog, and yet they seem okay with it. Hmm, let's study.
00:37:43
Speaker 4: Oh, you're so optimistic.
00:37:46
Speaker 1: There are people out there who are going to do that. She is gonna finish first. The only question is who will finish second, don't forget George Gascone when he finally lost the election, he finished first in the primary and then he lost by a lot. And she's gonna finish first in the primary. Let's just hope that she suffers the same fate as George Gascon. All Right, we've got one more hour coming up on The John Phillips Show, Don't You Go Anywhere.
